Genesis, Hyundai’s luxury brand, has plans to come to Europe. The brand announced this at the announcement of the new European director. In order to ensure a smooth expansion to our continent, Genesis has again flown in personnel from Audi.
Dominique Bösch, who has been a director of various departments for Audi in Asia, will lead the European branch of Genesis. He is not the first member of staff to snatch the Koreans from the Germans. Previously, Peter Schreyer, the designer who, among other things, designed the Audi TT, was also hired. Bösch has the task of making Genesis a success here. According to him, the brand can sometimes cause a surprise. “I’m sure the models we plan to release here will come as a pleasant surprise to many,” he says. Further details on the European line-up and how Genesis plans to sell cars here will be announced shortly.
Genesis was positioned as Hyundai’s luxury brand from 2015. At that announcement, it was already known that Europe was not a priority in the first instance, but would only follow when there are several models in the showrooms. That is the case now. Genesis currently offers four models and a fifth is on the way. The G90, the top model, was the first car to receive the new design language. The G80 followed later, and more recently the G70, with the latter competing against the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Audi A4 and BMW 3-Series. In addition, Genesis offers a full-size SUV with the GV80. A smaller SUV in the form of the GV70, which has to compete with cars like the BMW X3, is also on the way.
Finally, a fully electric model is in the pipeline, bringing Genesis to a total of six available models. Indeed, the number announced at the launch of the luxury brand in 2015. Whether Genesis will become more successful in Europe than it was in the past remains to be seen. Infiniti, another Asian luxury brand, recently gave up.